Cranbrook Academy of Art

Cranbrook Academy of Art,Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; designed by Eliel Saarinen.Shoughtoprivate, coeducational institution of higher learning in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., U.S. The school and its associated museum were designed largely by Finnish American architect Eliel Saarinen. Cranbrook Academy of Art is devoted solely to graduate study in the arts, offering master’s degree programs in fine arts and architecture. Areas of study include architecture, ceramics, design, fibre arts, metalsmithing, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. The faculty consists of an artist-in-residence in each department; visiting artists also lecture, conduct workshops, and evaluate student work.

Cranbrook was founded by a Detroit newspaper publisher, George G. Booth, and his wife, Ellen Scripps Booth, and is named for his father’s birthplace in England. The art museum (built 1940–41, opened 1942) is one of several buildings of Cranbrook Educational Community on the Booth estate; it is surrounded by landscaped gardens containing sculptures, fountains, and tree-lined walks. The museum’s collection emphasizes contemporary art, the sculpture of Carl Milles, and the drawings of Saarinen. Saarinen House at Cranbrook, completed in 1930 and the architect’s residence until his death in 1950, has been restored and is open to the public.

The academy was founded in 1932 and was given the authority to grant degrees in 1942. Saarinen was its first president. Notable teachers there have been Milles, Saarinen’s son Eero (an architect and furniture designer), furniture designer Charles Eames, and sculptor-designer Harry Bertoia.